Pokémon X and Y facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
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North American box art for Pokémon X and Pokémon Y, showing the legendary Pokémon Xerneas and Yveltal
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| Developer(s) | Game Freak |
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| Director(s) | Junichi Masuda |
| Producer(s) |
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| Designer(s) | Shigeru Ohmori |
| Programmer(s) | Katsumi Ono |
| Artist(s) | Ken Sugimori |
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| Series | Pokémon |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo 3DS |
| Release date(s) |
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| Genre(s) | Role-playing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Pokémon X and Pokémon Y are exciting role-playing video games that were released in 2013 for the Nintendo 3DS. Developed by Game Freak and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo, these games marked the beginning of the sixth generation in the main Pokémon game series. They were first announced in January 2013 and made history by being the first Pokémon games to launch worldwide on the same day in October 2013.
In these games, players embark on an adventure as a young Pokémon Trainer. Your goal is to catch, train, and battle amazing creatures called Pokémon. Along the way, you'll also work to stop the plans of a mysterious group known as Team Flare. Pokémon X and Y introduced 72 brand-new Pokémon species and brought many exciting new features. These included the new Fairy-type Pokémon, the ability to customize your character's look, and powerful new battle mechanics like "Mega Evolution." The games also featured completely new 3D graphics, a big change from the 2D sprites used in earlier games. While you can play each game separately, trading Pokémon between X and Y is essential to complete your Pokédex and catch 'em all!
Pokémon X and Y were very popular and received positive reviews from critics. People especially loved the new 3D visuals and models. The games were a huge commercial success, selling four million copies globally in their first weekend. This made them the fastest-selling games on the Nintendo 3DS at the time. As of September 30, 2024, over 16.76 million copies have been sold worldwide, making them the second best-selling games on the system.
A sequel, Pokémon Legends: Z-A, was released on October 16, 2025, for the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. This new adventure takes place five years after Pokémon X and Y and focuses on rebuilding Lumiose City, a major city in the Kalos region inspired by Paris, France.
Contents
Discovering the Kalos Region
Pokémon X and Y are role-playing video games with fun adventure elements. You play from a third-person view, looking down on your character. These were the first Pokémon games to use the 3D features of the Nintendo 3DS family consoles. As a young Pokémon Trainer, you travel through the Kalos region, catching and training Pokémon. You'll also battle other Trainers to become stronger.
When your Pokémon win battles, they earn experience. This helps them level up, improve their battle skills, learn new moves, and sometimes even evolve into more powerful forms! You can also find wild Pokémon during your journey. To catch them, you weaken them in battle and then use special Poké Balls. Once caught, they can join your team. The games also let you battle and trade Pokémon with friends and other players online using the Nintendo 3DS's internet features. Just like in earlier games, some Pokémon are only found in Pokémon X and others only in Pokémon Y. This encourages players to trade with each other to complete their Pokédex.
New Ways to Play
Pokémon X and Y brought many exciting changes to the series. They were the first main Pokémon games to use full 3D graphics. This made the world feel more alive and battles more dynamic! You could also customize your Pokémon trainer's look. At the start, you chose your gender, skin tone, and hair color. Later, you could find new outfits and accessories to make your character truly unique.
Meet New Pokémon and Types
These games introduced many new Pokémon species, adding to the hundreds already known. The new Starter Pokémon were Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie. The powerful Legendary Pokémon for this generation were Xerneas, Yveltal, and Zygarde. You could also choose one of the classic starter Pokémon from Pokémon Red and Blue later in your adventure. A brand-new type, the Fairy-type, was added for both new and old Pokémon. This was the first new type since Pokémon Gold and Silver and helped balance battles, especially against Dragon-type Pokémon.
Exciting Battle and Training Features
A major new feature was Mega Evolution. This allows certain fully evolved Pokémon, like Mewtwo and Lucario, to temporarily transform into even stronger "Mega Evolved" forms during battle. They do this by using special items called "Mega Stones." Some Pokémon even have more than one Mega form!
Other new battle types included Sky Battles and Horde Encounters. Sky Battles were mid-air fights where only flying Pokémon could participate, offering a cool new view of battles. Horde Encounters were challenging battles where your single Pokémon faced five wild Pokémon at once!
Beyond battles, Pokémon X and Y introduced fun ways to interact with your Pokémon. Pokémon-Amie let you play with your Pokémon using the 3DS touchscreen and camera. You could give them treats and pet them to build a stronger bond, which could even affect how they performed in battle! Super Training offered various mini-games to help improve your Pokémon's basic stats, making them stronger for fights.
Connecting with Friends
Pokémon X and Y also made it easier to connect with other players. The Player Search System (PSS) helped you find and keep track of online players, making it simple to start battles or trades. The Holo Caster was a device that let you receive messages and updates from characters in the game and even from other players.
Wonder Trade was a fun new way to trade. You could trade one of your Pokémon for a random Pokémon from another player somewhere in the world! O-Powers were temporary boosts that could help your Pokémon or make catching them easier, and you could share these with friends. The Global Trade System also improved, allowing you to request Pokémon you hadn't even seen yet. You could even take in-game screenshots and share them online!
Pokémon Bank is an optional online service that lets you store up to 3,000 Pokémon. This cloud storage makes it easy to move your Pokémon between different copies of the games you own. Another app, Poké Transporter, allowed players to bring Pokémon from older games like Black, White, Black 2, and White 2 into Pokémon Bank, and then into X and Y. These applications were also designed to be used with later games in the series.
Behind the Scenes: Making the Games
Development for Pokémon X and Y began in 2010. Director Junichi Masuda shared that the main themes for these games were beauty, bonds, and evolution. Beauty was a key focus, and Masuda felt France was a perfect example. He even sent a team to France in 2011 to study its culture and landscapes. Flowers were added to many routes in the game to make them look beautiful and to create unique places to find wild Pokémon.
The legendary Pokémon, Xerneas, Yveltal, and Zygarde, were inspired by Norse mythology. The titles X and Y were chosen early on, representing different ways of thinking, like the x-axis and y-axis in math. The simple names also helped with the games' worldwide release. Designers also tried to keep Pokémon names the same in every country, which was a big challenge!
Designing the World and Pokémon
A huge change for the Pokémon series was moving from two-dimensional sprites to three-dimensional models. This meant a much larger team was needed, with over 500 people working on the games! The team made sure to keep the iconic art style of Pokémon art director Ken Sugimori, who has been designing Pokémon since 1996.
Masuda asked for the shapes "X" and "Y" to be the basis for the legendary Pokémon, Xerneas and Yveltal. Sugimori usually designs legendary Pokémon alone, but he worked with Yusuke Ohmura for these two. Their designs took about 18 months to finalize, which was three times longer than usual! Manga artist Hitoshi Ariga also helped design ten new Pokémon for the games.
The Music of Kalos
The music for Pokémon X and Y was composed by Shota Kageyama, Minako Adachi, Hitomi Sato, Junichi Masuda, Go Ichinose, and Morikazu Aoki. This was the first time the Pokémon series used the Nintendo 3DS's improved sound capabilities. Masuda was very happy with the better sound quality. Like the games themselves, the soundtrack was designed to emphasize beauty. Kageyama found inspiration in French music but tried not to make it sound too French. Masuda himself composed the games' battle themes, adding new techno elements to some of them.
The official soundtrack, with 212 songs, was released digitally worldwide on November 20, 2013, as Pokémon X & Pokémon Y: Super Music Collection. It was very popular, appearing on several music charts. Critics praised the music, calling it "utterly lovely" and noting that the quieter tunes were "legitimately beautiful."
Release and Special Events
Launching Worldwide
Pokémon X and Y were first announced by Satoru Iwata on January 8, 2013. For the first time in the main Pokémon series, these games were released globally on the same day: October 12, 2013. There were some instances of stores selling the games early in the UK, leading Nintendo to remind retailers about the official release date.
Fun Promotions and Anime
To celebrate the launch, special Nintendo 3DS XL consoles featuring Xerneas and Yveltal were released. Japan also received a premium gold version. From October 12, 2013, to January 15, 2014, players could download a special Torchic that could Mega Evolve into Mega Blaziken. Later, in March 2014, Club Nintendo members in North America could get a free download code for Pokémon X or Y if they registered a new Nintendo 2DS or 3DS system and a qualifying game.
The new Mega Evolution feature was also highlighted in the Pokémon anime. Mega Mewtwo Y appeared in a special episode and the film ExtremeSpeed Genesect: Mewtwo Awakens, both released in 2013. Mega Evolution was also shown in the TV special Pokémon Origins, which retold the story of the original Pokémon Red and Blue games and featured a surprise appearance of Mega Charizard X. The anime series based on these games, titled Pokémon the Series: XY, began airing in Japan on October 17, 2013, and was previewed in North America and Europe on October 19, 2013.
See also
In Spanish: Pokémon X y Pokémon Y para niños
